A stark example of what's wrong with our attitude to road safety in Barnet

What struck me is how greater emphasis was put on the "severe tailbacks for motorists" than the fact that people were hurt, ambulances called and people taken to hospital. The article begins -

TWO car crashes caused severe tailbacks for motorists in Finchley this morning.

Having been hospitalised by a speeding car, it outrages me that these reports never really tell us what caused the accidents (speed? Alcohol? Bad driving) and what level of injuries were caused. Until we start caring about road safety, nothing will improve. A good place to start would be to follow up these stories, say why the accidents happen, how badly people were hurt and what sanctions were taken against the drivers.

Last week a well known 81 year old man helping out a charity was run over on the pavement in Mill Hill. For a man of this age, at the very least this could be a life changing injury. Barnet Council has an atrocious record on road safety, removing many measures designed to slow down motorists. Ignorant Tories claim speed has no influence on any accident, clearly being too thick to understand that every time a car hits something it's because it was going too fast to stop.

As a father of three children, it scares the hell out of me, but all our road supremo, Councillor Brian Coleman seems to care about is the rights of motorists to go as fast as they like. Many traffic calming measures on roads on popular walking routes to local schools (Uphill Road, Watling Avenue, Millway) have been removed. Barnet has seen it's road safety figures become steadily worse than equivalent London Boroughs. When will these idiots ever learn?

2 comments:

This is a very complex problem Roger. I walk, cycle, motorcycle and drive a car and occasionally a van. I recommend the book "Traffic - Why we drive the way we do - and what it says about us" by Tom Vanderbilt. isbn 978-0-713-99931-0

I think that the main elements of the answer are better driver training and attitude.

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Dyslexic punk rock guitarist, studio owner and author Barnet Eye blog, proprieter of Mill Hill Music Complex Studios. Born and raised in the London Borough of Barnet. Loves loud music, beer,curry and football and occasionally strings two coherent sentences together. Drop dead georgous and hung like a horse (the last sentence is purely a personal opinion).

If you have received a penalty fare at a Thameslink Station and you sent an appeal off to the Independent Penalty Fare Appeals Service, did you notice that this says at the bottom of the letter you got back "London and South Eastern Railways T/A IPFAS". In other words, it's not independent, it's an arm of a train company. They actually run Blackfriars station.

I believe that it is a scandal that this service calls itself independent, but there is no right of appeal and it's run by one of the train operators. I believe that the penalty ticket scheme is a scam to generate extra profits for these companies.

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